The present invention relates to an air-delivery system, wherein the air-delivery system is coupled to a hose delivering water or fire-extinguishing foam.
Fire and combustion consume oxygen-rich air, replacing the oxygenated air with carbon dioxide, and other toxic and lethal gases. Additionally, the smoke produced by fire can readily fill the lungs, causing rapid asphyxiation. Furthermore, destruction of materials by fire, and the resulting collapse of structures, often produce debris-laden atmospheric conditions, that, even away from the concentration of smoke and fire can fill the lungs with particles, making breathing difficult or impossible. Both the victims of such disasters and emergency workers are subject to death by asphyxiation as a result of such conditions.
Early attempts at providing fresh air to emergency workers did so by providing a breathing tube along the length of a fire hose with the breathing tube's inlet at the end of the fire hose attached to the water source. The breathing tube draws in air from the atmosphere to the emergency worker. However, when smoke or debris are present in the atmosphere surrounding the inlet of the air hose, the air reaching the emergency worker is also contaminated and results in continued hindered breathing. Furthermore, the breathing tube required some type of manual effort to draw the air through the tube.
Now, emergency workers normally carry a self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) on their back. However, these self-contained units normally only provide about a fifteen-minute air supply. Prior art devices have attempted to resolve the problem of limited air supply of the breathing apparatus by providing breathing stations throughout a building. But installing multiple stations in every structure or residence is cost-prohibitive and impractical, especially for private residences. Additionally, if the location of the station in the structure is engulfed in flames or collapses, the emergency air-supply becomes unavailable.
Another device that addresses the limited air supply of the SCBA is a single hose used to deliver both water to fight the fire and an emergency air supply to the breathing apparatus. However, these devices have several disadvantages. An emergency worker cannot use the hose to deliver water for dousing flames while at the same time using the hose to deliver air to the breathing mask since the water supply must be shut down while the air supply is being delivered. Second, such an air supply system cannot be used in conjunction with hoses that deliver fire-extinguishing foam or other fire-fighting chemicals because delivering air through the same hose would contaminate the air supply delivered through that hose with such chemicals that are toxic to humans.
Hence, there is a need for a fire hose that can simultaneously deliver fire fighting liquid and an uncontaminated air supply.